


Write Me New, My Future's Epigraph

by batyalewbel



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: A Scene Rewrite, AU, Gen, How has nobody done this already I checked and saw nothing, alternate endings, because I hate the ending for Credence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-14 23:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9210614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batyalewbel/pseuds/batyalewbel
Summary: She's a legilimens not a seer. But just this once...She sees it all happen in an instant...in triplicate





	

**Author's Note:**

> Look my grammar is probably shit but I have FEELINGS. If somebody sees this and feels the urge to beta, come at me on Tumblr I'm ladyknightthebrave!

_If you have been broken, stand up._   
_If you have been broken, abandoned, alone_   
_If you have been starving, a creature of bone_   
_If you live in a tower, a dungeon, a throne_   
_If you weep for wanting, to be held, to be known,_   
_Come stand by me._

_-A Monstrous Manifesto, Catherine M. Valenti_

 

Queenie is far away when she sees it all.

She's a legilimens not a seer. But _just this once..._

She sees it all happen. Legilimens and seer for just a moment, standing outside the subway. Trapped outside by the golden barrier the Macusa cast, she sees it happen in an instant...in triplicate.

-1-

In one version everybody in the tunnel dies. The boy escapes but he's no better than he was. Everybody in his life fails him and he has no help. He rages for a time through the streets of New York before fizzling into nothing but ash. She hates this version, but she knows it hasn't happened yet as she stands breathless with Kowalski beside her.

-2-

In another version...the boy dies.

Newt Scamander crouches before the boy, this poor boy, even from here she can _feel_ his agony. Tina is not far behind and that awful man Graves is not too far behind. She's never trusted a man she couldn't read and he was as difficult to read as a book written in Parseltongue. She never got anything from him and it put her on edge. Now he loomed over all them in that tunnel.

Newt was trying with the boy.

“I know you're scared, I _know_ , but we can help you...” he trails off like he's afraid to imply Graves is part of that _we._

The boys is losing control...he's losing himself to it. To this _Obscurus_ as Newt called it.

Graves begins to speak to the boy. He tries to be kind and it rings false in their ears. She wasn't sure before but she is now. The man has no kindness in him at all. For all that the boy can't help the havoc he's wreaking there is only one monster in that tunnel and she knows who it _isn't._

And his words do nothing good. He says the boy should embrace his power, he says he should come with Graves. It's enough for the boy to lose his tenuous thread of self control and the dark waves come lashing off him knocking Newt and Graves to the ground.

This boy is trying so hard when Tina comes running in.

“Credence, no!” she calls sounding desperate and afraid.

“Not like this,” she says and the black cloud slows into a quiet whirlwind.

“Don't do this...please...” she says and Newt looks at her with something close to hope.

“Keep talking Tina,” he says, “He's listening to you.” Newt is a planner. Even now Queenie can see the way he's coming up with a hundred solutions. And her beautiful sister...well she keeps talking…

“I know what that women did to you,” Tina says and the words have so much hurt in them. Her sister's heart hurts for this boy. Tina always called her the soft one but they both know that's not true. She stands before the boy underneath all that smoke and cloud with tears in her eyes.

“I know that you've suffered...but you need to stop this now...” she says it and it sounds so gentle...Tina could help this boy. He's suffering right _now_ trying to hold it all in. Trying to hold back the damage this Obscurus is doing around him.

“Newt and I can protect you,” she says taking a step forward, and then another. Newt slowly gets up off the ground and so does Graves beside him.

“This man is _using you,_ ” Tina continues and she wishes she was there to point at Graves. To make absolutely sure this boy knew, it was _him_ he should be running from.

“Don't listen to her Credence,” Graves says and his words are acid in Queenie's ears.  
“It's alright,” he says and while it can be she still wishes Newt would silence that man. The boy is still managing to hold himself in check...the cloud is still slowing.

“That's it,” Tina says.

That's when _they_ come.

Queenie can see their faces. She recognizes so many of them. The woman who complimented her dress the other day, the man who helped her mop up last week when the tray tripped and spilled everything. Mr. Gibbons on the third floor like's far too much sugar in his coffee and always smiles when she brings it to him.

She _knows_ these people.

She thought she knew these people.

They show up with their wands out and her sister is shushing them.

“Don't frighten him,” she says because the people she's known for years are blind to the child before them who _needs their help._ Even Graves is telling them to put their wands down with a threat if they don't.

Tina ignores the man, ignores the crowd behind her. She calls to the boy, Credence. She has her hands out like a desperate attempt to stop everything that's about to happen and she shushes him. Queenie remembers the way their mom used to do that when they were scared. She knows why Tina thinks the sound alone could calm this storm. Maybe with more time it could have.

The Macusa start casting spells at this boy, this _child._ They rain _death on this boy._

“ _No!_ ” Tina and Newt yell in useless tandem. Flung to the ground like ragdolls so they don't get caught in the blaze.

Underneath that corrosive fire...the boy disintegrates into little more than dust and ash. For a moment, nothing and nobody move. Tina lets the tears flow and it's Newt who get's up first.

“How _could you!_ ” he yells at the crowd.

“That was a child you just _murdered,_ ” his voice echoes off the walls and for a moment nobody speaks.

“That child was a danger to society,” Seraphina Picquery says in that voice that Queenie's heard for years. For all her Legilimens abilities Queenie realizes she barely knows these people at all.

“He was a child and he needed help,” Newt says and there are tears in his eyes.

“We could have helped him and you all killed him.”

In this version Newt leaves New York to fend for itself. The wizards needed to come into the light, he told Tina before he got on a boat and left.

-3-

It's this version that Queenie hangs all her hopes on.

Everything happens the same. Newt tries, Graves remains and his presence threatens them all, Tina appears and Credence listens for a moment.

When the Macusa appear with their wands out Tina continues to try. She shushes and tries to comfort and the cloud of smoke swishes and twitches in it's corner of the tunnel.

That's where this version shifts. Newt looks in time to see their mouths moving, their wands beginning to flicker with the spells they are beginning to cast.

“ _WAIT!_ ” He yells and he jumps to his feet and runs past Tina and Graves. He runs straight at the cloud and turns to face them all.

“Wait,” he says again and he takes a step back, then another, and another. The crowd waits, Tina gasps out his name in fear, Graves watches.

He steps right up to the edge of the cloud and glances over his shoulder, almost like asking permission. The whisps of it shy away from him.

He nods once at Tina and steps into the cloud and it clears around him, tendrils lashing out at the walls and fading, but it clears for him. He takes another step, and another. The gray and black keep out of his way and the clouds close in behind him.

The room is silent. Nobody breathes but they can hear his careful footsteps on the stone and cement.

Inside, the cloud Newt walks in a smoky bubble. Making his way towards the epicenter of it. He can hardly see but he finds eye of the storm soon enough.

Credence kneels on the ground, hugging himself like his arms alone will be enough to hold him together. And Newt stares down at him remembering the girl he failed to save.

“May I sit with you Credence?” he asks and the boy looks up at him. One quick look and away again. He nods his head and Newt settles on the ground, all gawky limbs and hopeful intentions. He looks around at his personal bubble with bright eyes.

“This is really quite something isn't it?” he asks almost conversationally and even with the smoke coming off him, Credence lip twitches a little.

“Thank you for clearing this for me by the way, that's very good of you.” he gestures at his sphere of protection again and Credence glances at him once and away again.

“Now I do believe I can help you Credence...I've dealt with this condition once before and...” he trails off and even though the boy is still shaking and smoking, he can see the clouds around them has come to an almost standstill.

“I'll be honest, I don't know if I can fix this for good but I would very much like to try, if you'll let me.”

Outside the storm of inky black they can hear every word. Tina finally had the sense to cast a quick _silencio_ on the room. None of them can interrupt right now.

Credence finally speaks and his voice sounds as broken as the walls around them.

“How?”

Newt actually leans forward a little. His big hands gesture wildly and the smoke has to move back a little more to accommodate him as he describes a case. A case that contains all manner of Magical beings.

“I might have to strengthen a few spells but I think with the right barriers in place it could contain you, even in this form...and then maybe we can find a way from there...”

“Contain me?” the boys asks and Newt sighs a little.

“I know it's not perfect...it's so very, _very_ far from that...but I could take you away from here...you won't have to worry about hurting anyone...and while you're...yourself. Solid, I mean...I've got loads of creatures you could meet, lovely buggers...you might like them.”

Credence is actually watching him now...not looking away. He's watching for some crack in the facade. Some hint of a lie because they all have lied before but all he sees is bumbling truth in the man beside him.

“It's not perfect and it's not meant to be a permanent solution...I'm afraid people with your condition don't always live long. _But,_ if we can keep this—” he points at the smoke around them, “Contained, than maybe we can help you to control it. And then maybe you can come out and live a normal life like the rest of us.” The look Credence cuts him then is almost sardonic.

“Normal-ish,” Newt amends and Credence actually smiles. A brief flash of one before he says.

“That's a lot of maybe's….you said your name was Newt?” he asks and the grin he get's in response is practically blinding in the dark.

“Newt, Newton Scamander...it's an _awful_ lot of maybe's...I think a lot of people have lied to you Credence and I don't want to be one of them. This may not work. But wouldn't it be better to try?” he asks and Credence watches him for a long moment before he nods and takes a deep breath.

The smoke around them starts to thin and Newt murmurs encouragements until the smoke is nothing but a memory and there is a shaky but solid boy kneeling beside him.

In this version Newt jumps to his feet and stands in front of the boy.

“Lower this barrier and we will leave New York immediately.” He glances at Tina once but focuses on Seraphina Picquery and her wizards.

“You can't just leave, this boy has done massive amounts of damage to the city and completely blown our secrecy with the No-Maj's,” she says and Newt shakes his head.

“This boy, is going to learn to control this, and he is going to get better. Keeping him here guarantees nothing except we might lose more lives today.”

Picquery has no response. They are at an impasse.

Then something occurs to Newt and he let's out the softest sound of exclamation.

“I think I have a way to help you with your secrecy, if you'll lower the barrier. I need my case.”

In this version he releases his Thunderbird with the potion that will obliviate all the No-Maj's in the city. Kowalski loses all memory of her and of Newt and of the time spent in the Magical world. Credence will leave New York in his case and beyond that the future isn't shown to her.

\--

Queenie knows which version she hopes will occur but seeing it all at once is as blinding as the shield keeping them out of the tunnels. It's at that moment that the shield falls and she takes Kowalski by the hand and races down into the subway tunnels.

Kowalski doesn't question it. He just grips Newt's case tight and follows where she leads.

When they emerge in the tunnel Queenie sees Tina first and races over to embrace her sister. She survived so the first version didn't happen. She looks around the room and separate from everybody else, she sees Newt and she sees the boy Credence. He's scared but he's alive and Queenie can't help but smile at him, bright as the sun. He smiles back uncertainly and later Queenie will explain to Tina what she saw and Tina will flap her hand and say 'that's ridiculous, you're not a seer,' and Queenie will agree! She's not a seer but she knows what she saw and they ended up in the best possible ending.

Graves reveals himself shortly after as Grindewald and he's successfully arrested by the Macusa. Tina and Queenie say goodbye to the boys before they board the boat home.

But, Queenie know she and her sister will see them again.

**Author's Note:**

> You'll notice none of these versions are the version in the movie because I HATE IT AND IT SHOULDN'T EXIST???  
> I'm really shocked I didn't find any scene rewrites but it seems like most of y'all are writing the shippy stuff??  
> ...um...I will leave you to that and imagine this boy gets a nice Magical therapist and has a successful recovery. Maybe when he's a few years older and recovers from this shit he will have a lovely boyfriend. Cheers y'all
> 
> The title is from a poem called Past And Future by Elizabeth Barrett Browning


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